Create song with duets
Note: This tutorial refers to Pro version only.
Karaoke Creator gives you the tools to create professional duets. Most important duet features are:
· Duet Wizard that helps to assign lyrics to singers
· Full Duet synchronization mode
· Divided CD+G screen for duets (Singer 1 at top and Singer 2 at the bottom of the screen)
In this tutorial we will show you how to create a song that can be sing by two singers, each of them singing different words at the same time.
To understand this tutorial you need to be familiar with creating songs with Karaoke Creator, so if you are just starting please see Create karaoke song with PowerWizard tutorial first.
Starting up
In this tutorial we will use a traditional song Brother John. Soundtrack and lyrics can be found in Examples subfolder of My Karaoke folder in Documents. Please create a new song by clicking on New button on the toolbar or selecting New command from File menu. If you are using PowerWizard, select Create a new song from scratch (without PowerWizard) on the first wizard screen.
Now load the soundtrack using Load soundtrack button on the toolbar. The soundtrack file is brother john.mp3. Then load the lyrics from the text file -- use Import lyrics toolbar button or Import lyrics from a text file command from File menu. Lyrics file is brother john.txt. You may save the first version of the song at this point.
Defining duets
The next step it to assign portions of the lyrics to each of the singers. As you have probably noticed the song lyrics consists of 5 repeated verses, while the music contains the same verse 4 times only. We will start with both singers singing the first verse together, then Singer 1 will sing two verses with Singer 2 joining in, but half of the verse later. And the last verse will be sung together by both.
To assign lyrics to singers we will use Duet Wizard.
To start it click Duet Wizard button on the toolbar (
) or select Duet Wizard from Edit menu.
Lyrics assigned to Singer 1 are red, lyrics assigned to Singer 2 are blue, and those that should be sung together are grey.
To assign a part of the lyrics to particular singer (or to both singers) select this part in the lyrics window (drag mouse to select the text) and then click Selection button next to the singer mode you want to use. Duet Wizard always uses full lines, so if you position the cursor in the middle of the line and then click Selection, entire line will be assigned.
From cursor to end buttons allow to assign all song lyrics from the current cursor position to the end of the song to one of the duet modes.
Set all will assign entire song to one of the modes.
After you close Duet Wizard with OK you will see that Duet events have been inserted in the text of the song.
Please note that you can enter Duet Wizard many times and the current duet assignments will be the starting point for further editing.
Synchronization
Now it is time to synchronize the lyrics.
To do this we need to enter full duet mode. To do this click Full duet mode button on the toolbar (
) or select Enable full duet mode from Synchronize menu. Duet tab control will appear above the lyrics editor.
Duet tabs allow switching between duet modes. No duets is for editing lyrics -- it displays the entire text of the song. The other three are for each of the duet roles.
Selecting Singer 1 tab will activate Singer 1 duet mode. It will dim the lyrics that are not assigned for Singer 1 and preview will show Singer 1 lyrics only.
Duet tabs are used to synchronize the duet song. Unfortunately synchronizing duet songs takes three times as long as regular songs -- you have to synchronize part for both singers, and then individual parts for each of the two singers.
To continue with the tutorial try synchronizing the lyrics with the music. Select Both duet tab, click Synchronize entire song button on the toolbar, and synchronize the first and the last verse of the song. Then select Singer 1 tab, click Synchronize entire song button again and synchronize the second and the third verse. And finally synchronize Singer 2 -- this time start in the middle of the second verse.
Please note that synchronization labels in the soundtrack panel are not visible in No duets mode -- you need to activate one of the duet tabs to display and edit them.
Settings
To adjust the settings for duets double-click any of the duet events (Duet dialog box will appear) and select Duet settings button to open Duet settings dialog box.
Here you can define the text settings for Singer 1 and Singer 2 -- just select the mode on the top and adjust the settings. Please note that the number of lines apply to half of the screen only (Singer 1 uses the upper part and Singer 2 uses the lower part of screen). Settings for Both singers mode are copied from general settings.
Create file
We are nearly done. All that is left is to create a CD+G file and to see if everything plays correctly. This is important, as sometimes, because of synchronization errors, some text may overlap.
To create a CDG file click Create CD+G File toolbar button (
). You may leave all settings at default values -- simply click OK and see the result.
If you have missed any of the steps you may load the final file -- it is brother john4.pk2.
Duets without screen split
If you do not wish to split the screen between two singers and rather have words for both singers displayed one after another, disable Full duet mode before creating karaoke file. Also the lyrics for both singers should interleave -- they need to be in the same order as they should be displayed (so in general this will be like duets in PowerKaraoke, but with concurrent highlighting.
We have prepared an example that shows this -- it is brother john no split.pk2 file.